This invention relates to a sun visor for a vehicle.
Generally, a sun visor for a vehicle is mounted on a roof surface within a passenger compartment of the vehicle, and is disposed near to a front glass. The sun visor includes a shielding plate angularly movably supported on a shaft angularly movably mounted on a vehicle body. By angularly moving the shaft relative to the vehicle body, the shielding plate can be located along the front glass or a front door glass, and also by angularly moving the shielding plate relative to the shaft, the angle of use of the shielding plate can be changed.
Incidentally, in a vehicle equipped with an airbag device, in some cases, a force, tending to withdraw or disengage the shielding plate from the shaft, acts on the sun visor upon deployment (or expansion) of an airbag.
For example, when a shielding plate 101 of a sun visor 100 for a driver's seat is located along a front glass 110 as shown in FIG. 10, and a driver's seat airbag 111, stored in a steering wheel (not shown), is deployed to strike against the shielding plate 101, a force, tending to withdraw the shielding plate 101 from a shaft 102, acts, in some cases, on the sun visor.
Also, when the shielding plate 101 of the sun visor 100 for the driver's seat is located along a front door glass 112 as shown in FIG. 10, and a side curtain airbag 113, stored in a side portion of a roof of the vehicle, is deployed to strike against the shielding plate 101, a force, tending to withdraw the shielding plate 101 from the shaft 102, acts, in some cases, on the sun visor. This is also the case with a sun visor for a front passenger seat adjacent to the driver's seat.
Therefore, such a vehicular sun visor employs a retaining structure for preventing the shielding plate from being disengaged from the shaft.
For example, Patent Literature 1 discloses a sun visor in which a retaining projection is formed on a shaft, and this retaining projection abuts against a shaft receiving portion of a shielding plate, thereby preventing the shielding plate from moving in a direction of an axis of the shaft.
Patent Literature 2 discloses a sun visor in which two retaining projections are formed on a shaft, and the two retaining projections abut against shaft receiving portions of a shielding plate, thereby preventing the shielding plate from moving in a direction of an axis of the shaft.    [Patent Literature 1] JP-A-2004-98748    [Patent Literature 2] JP-A-2003-312258
In the sun visor of Patent Literature 1, however, there is provided only one retaining projection, and therefore in order to secure a sufficient strength to positively prevent the disengagement of the shielding plate, the retaining projection must be increased in size, and as a result there is encountered a problem that the shaft receiving portion has an increased size, so that the overall size of the sun visor increases.
In the sun visor of Patent Literature 2, since the two retaining projections are designed to abut against the shaft receiving portions at the same time, the force can be distributed or divided. Therefore, a predetermined strength can be secured even if each of the two retaining projections has a small size. However, the two retaining projections are brought into abutting engagement with the shaft receiving portions at the same timing, and therefore this impact must be received at a time, and the force to be borne by each retaining projection is still large though the force is distributed or divided. As a result, each retaining projection still has an increased size.